Adobe launched a major update to Lightroom yesterday, making things that much more interesting in the cloud photography space. While the current Adobe Lightroom CC (now known as Lightroom Classic CC) received a slew of updates, the major announcement was the cloud-based Lightroom CC.

Michael Zhang on Lightroom CC for PetaPixel:

Lightroom CC features the same power as Photoshop and Lightroom but a new streamlined user interface that allows for powerful editing of full-resolution photos on desktop, mobile, and the Web. Changes made through Lightroom CC on one device are automatically synced to all devices.

If, however, you are an existing Lightroom user who is comfortable using the broad range of tools and features in the Develop module you may miss the following:

Histories

Info Overlay with cropped dimensions

PhotoMerge

Shadow and Highlight clipping warnings

Snapshots

Soft Proofing

Split Toning

Tone Curve Adjustments

Virtual Copies

Lightroom CC definitely feels a bit dumbed-down, making it perfect for a Mac/iPad/iPhone/web photo editor.

Lightroom CC for Mac retains the ability to import custom, third-party presets — an absolute must-have for my simple workflow — but those third-party presets still don’t transfer into the iPad or iPhone apps. If (or presumably when) those presets become syncable across devices, I will be able to move almost 99% of my work to an iPad. With all the keyboard issues on the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, the sooner I can move to the iPad, the better.

More importantly, I’m hesitant to go all-in on Lightroom CC on its own. There are a wide range of features not ported over to the new app — namely the tone curve — and, admittedly, old habits die hard. I’ve decided to keep Lightroom Classic CC around and start a new library in Lightroom CC to give it a try. Plus, there’s the added benefit of the spiffy new Lightroom logo on iPhone and iPad.

A few friends in the Candid Slack room have commented on a wide range of bugs in Lightroom Classic CC, making this update a bit more cumbersome for some users. I didn’t experience the same issues, but it won’t take long for Adobe to lose the trust of sturdy professionals willing to pay for a sturdy product.